Re-Living First Pages

There are many moments in my life when I think, “I need to follow the advice in my own book!”

Case in point…

In the introduction of 31 Days to Becoming a Happy Wife, I write about how I (reluctantly) went mountain biking with James when we were dating. I didn’t know how to ride a mountain bike. James had to keep me from crashing into the poles on both sides of the dirt trail. He taught me about steering in five words…

You go where you focus.

He taught me to look at the path, not at the poles. Just like marriage. Focus on where you want to go. The positives. Don’t focus on the obstacles.

Well, since we’ve had kids, there hasn’t been a whole lot of mountain biking going on. So guess what we did earlier this month?

We were in New York a few days before our Today Show appearance, staying with James’ brother and sister-in-law who happen to be hard-core mountain bikers. So…here I am, back on the bike after a long hiatus!

As the trail got narrower and switched back and forth, I had to stop before wiping out. I hissed to James (if you can picture me hissing), “I hate this!”

You see, the first 5 minutes of the ride happened to be the most challenging. I thought, “If the whole trail is like this, I’ll never make it!”

To my relief, it opened up a bit and wasn’t as technical. I was okay. Before you are too impressed, it was a beginner loop.

There were parts of the trail where it would go between two really big tree trunks. As I approached the trunks, I thought, “Oh no! I’m going to hit that tree trunk!”

But then I would think of James’ advice.

You go where you focus.

I would force myself to look straight at the trail and not the trees. I made it through every time (but boy, my heart was beating wildly!).

I thought it was so fitting that the weekend before our appearance on the Today Show about 31 Days to Becoming a Happy Wife, I was getting my own practicum of choosing to be happy, even on a bumpy mountain bike trail. I was re-living the first pages of my book all over again!

Which totally makes sense, because becoming a happy wife is a lifelong learning process!